Best Touristy Thing in Hollywood (2013)

The Hollywood Museum is billed as having the most extensive collection of show business memorabilia in the world, and after spending hours wandering four floors containing more than 10,000 artifacts, the exhausted visitor would have to agree (at least until the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences opens its planned museum next to LACMA). In its previous incarnation as the Max Factor Building, you could visit its three color-coordinated makeup rooms and look at various beauty relics, and that was it. Now, however, it just goes on and on, four floors' worth, with Vegas-worthy displays of costumes, jewelry, machinery, props, sets, love letters and every manner of showbiz doodad. Mimicking its wax-museum neighbors, the facility even has a "torture chamber" of sorts in the basement, containing wonderful relics from classic horror films, like the life masks of Peter Lorre and Vincent Price, along with spooky props and some nice, dusty mummies. Even the old, Oz-like art deco employee restrooms are fun to visit, with their views of Hollywood and prim tile floors. 1660 N. Highland Ave., Hlywd., 90028. (323) 464-7776, thehollywoodmuseum.com. —Suzy Beal